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Washington, D.C.,’s Mayor Muriel Bowser is pushing back against Attorney General Pam Bondi’s appointment of Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) chief Terry Cole as D.C.’s “Emergency Police Commissioner,” arguing that “there is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official.”
Bondi issued the appointment in a directive late on Thursday night, stating that Cole “shall serve as MPD’s (Metropolitan Police Department) Emergency Police Commissioner for the duration of the emergency declared by the President.”
Per Bondi, as part of Cole’s appointment, the DEA chief “shall assume all of the powers and duties vested in the District of Columbia Chief of Police” and all MPD seniors must wait for approval from Cole before issuing any of their own directives.
This comes amid President Donald Trump’s widely-critiqued takeover of the police force in D.C., a decision he says was prompted by “crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor” in the capital. A depiction that has been strongly refuted by Bowser and others.
“This is liberation day in D.C. and we’re going to take our capital back,” Trump said on Monday, announcing he was temporarily putting the Washington, D.C. police department under federal control. “This city will no longer be a sanctuary for illegal alien criminals… we will deploy officers across the district with an overwhelming presence. You’ll have more police and you’ll be so happy.”
During his announcement, Trump had said that Cole would hold a key appointment, which was officially declared by Bondi on Thursday.
Read More: Trump Puts D.C. Police Under His Control and Deploys National Guard
Trump’s takeover is authorized by law for 30 days, but he will need congressional approval to legally maintain control after that.
D.C.’s Mayor Bowser and Attorney General push back against appointment of “Emergency Police Commissioner”
In response to Bondi’s directive, Bowser took to social media with a…
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